


Alachua

by sanidine



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkwardness, First Time, Frottage, Hook-Up, M/M, Making Out, Outdoor Sex, Semi-Public Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 09:58:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12033543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanidine/pseuds/sanidine
Summary: "Hey" he said, and Rhyno looked down. "I thought I'd come over and say ‘Hi,’ seein’ as you're lookin’ pretty hot.""Uh, yeah. I, uh." Rhyno looked back towards the crackling flames, wiped at his forehead "I get sweaty, sorry."





	Alachua

When Rhyno finally found the place the party was already in full swing, the huge fire blazing in the middle of the clearing. It glowed so brightly that it made everything look almost as bright as daylight, sharp orange and yellow light that illuminated the partygoers and threw shadows so long that they melted into the darkened stands of trees that surrounded the field, into the pitch black sky above.

Rhyno had taken a deep breath and forced himself to not just drive away. Everything was going to be fine.

“You look like -  _ hic _ -” Chris said “- like Mr. Rogers fucked Wolverine.”

The only reason Rhyno knew this guy’s name was that Chris had stumbled up to him a few seconds ago and introduced himself. It was the first college party that Rhyno had been invited to and he didn't know anyone. 

Although now that he was there, he wasn't sure how much of a ‘college party’ it actually was. Almost none of the other cars along the edge of the road had campus parking stickers on them, and it certainly wasn't anywhere near the college. So it was probably people from the town, then, who had collected the veritable mountain of Christmas trees piled up on the edge of the clearing, brown and dead since it had been three weeks since Christmas. A couple of spots in the stack seemed to almost glitter, red and green and silver from leftover tinsel.

“Y’know.” Chris prodded him. “Mr. Rogers?”

“Um.” Rhyno looked down at himself. 

“And then they had -  _ hic _ . Had a kid together. And they fuckin’ raised it up together and -” Chris stopped talking for a second, wiped at his face. When he looked back at Rhyno his eyes were wet and shining in the orange firelight. “And they fuckin’ loved that kid, man. They loved it so much!”

“Um.” 

Rhyno had just wanted to make a good impression. But he had never been invited to a party before, hadn't known what to expect. Hadn't known how out of place he would be, showing up wearing khaki pants, a button down shirt under a sweater, to a party where someone was already passed out in the bed of a pickup truck.

“Here, you gotta take a picture with me.” Chris sniffed, threw an arm around Rhyno's shoulders and pulled him close to his side. That close, the smell of booze was even stronger than the smoke. “People gotta know.”

Rhyno had no idea what it was that people were supposed to know, but he didn't want to be rude so he just stayed still as Chris dug his phone out of his pocket, tried and failed to drunkenly angle the front facing camera. The fire was behind them so they were both almost completely shadowed, and Chris couldn’t manage to get both of them in the shot at the same time. Rhyno just stared at himself in the screen, his own uncomfortable smile, and fled as soon as Chris took his arm off of Rhyno’s shoulders.

Early January in north central Florida hardly even classified as ‘winter’, but it was still chilly enough that most people were wearing hoodies and the heat from the bonfire was shocking, overwhelming in comparison. Everyone was keeping back a good distance from the edge of it, chatting in loose groups that Rhyno wandered past without making eye contact. 

A few people tried to talk to him. Most of them were -. Pretty drunk, already. One girl gave him a cup with something overwhelmingly sour in it and told him that she liked his sweater. Rhyno was pretty sure that she was being sarcastic, but there was nothing he could do except nod and extract himself as quickly as possible.

Rhyno ended up standing as close to the fire as he could handle, sweating, holding the solo cup like a shield. People had stopped bothering him as much when he had walked over there. 

In fact, there only other person who was getting as close to the fire as Rhyno. A lanky redheaded guy who was wearing only a loose tank top and a pair of athletic shorts, who Rhyno watched as he hauled two trees out of the pile and drug them over to where the bonfire was crackling, tossing them into the flames.  The fire flared up in sparking gouts as each new tree was added, growing even larger, the crackling of the dry needles as they burned sounded like something was chewing on thin bones, giving off waves of shimmering heat. 

The guy wandered back over to the tree pile, apparently headed to retrieve a beer bottle that was balanced on the seat of a red, white, and blue camp chair. As he reached out, Rhyno saw in the firelight that the guy had a bunch of scratches up and down his forearms. Raised lines that looked even redder in the light from the fire where he must have been scraped by the branches, drawing attention to the corded muscles of his forearms and his wrists and.

Rhyno noticed that the guy was turning in his direction just in time to look away, to look down into his own cup and take a nervous sip. He didn't think that anyone had noticed him being a creep, hoped that it had just looked like he was staring into the fire instead. Or maybe he was going to draw attention to himself trying too hard to be inconspicuous… Rhyno was so busy fretting that he didn't even notice the guy walking towards him until he was right beside Rhyno.

"Hey" he said, and Rhyno looked down. "I thought I'd come over and say  _ ‘Hi,’ _ seein’ as you're lookin’ pretty hot."

"Uh, yeah. I, uh." Rhyno looked back  towards the crackling flames, wiped at his forehead "I get sweaty, sorry."

The guy laughed at that, but. It was a nice laugh. Not like that, not like Rhyno thought his laugh sounded nice or anything, just. Nice, instead of mean. Like he was laughing with Rhyno instead of at him, or he would have been laughing with him if Rhyno wouldn't have been too flustered to laugh.

"Haha, um.” Rhyno took a quick swig out of his cup to cover his wince at how awkward he was being.

“I'm Heath, by the way.” Heath held out his hand and Rhyno took it, gave a firm handshake the way that he knew he was supposed to.

“Rhyno.” 

Rhyno suddenly became hyper aware, a second too late, of the fact that he had just been wiping at his sweaty face with that hand. But Heath didn't seem bothered, even though Rhyno had already been mentally formulating his apology. In fact, Heath even held onto his hand for a second longer than he really needed to, before he let go and turned to look back over to the fire.

“I'm gonna go throw a few more trees on in a minute. You wanna help me out?”

Rhyno nodded, tongue tied when Heath grinned at him, and Rhyno pushed his sleeves up to his elbows and tried not to trip as he followed Heath over to the pile. 

The trees were so dry that even just lifting them caused dead needles to shower down. Heath took the trees from Rhyno one at a time, tossing four more on the fire, the heat spiking and pouring light off around the clearing. Rhyno’s hands were sticky with sap as he tried to figure out whether or not he was supposed to go now that Heath didn't need his help anymore.

Heath wasn't looking at him exactly, sort of watching the flames and the clearing beyond, only glancing at Rhyno out of the corner of his eye when he asked, casually as anything "So, Rhyno. You seein’ anybody?"

Rhyno blinked a couple of times. "I dunno, uh. I can't see that well right now. The smoke is getting in my eyes."

"Yeah, you're right.” Heath turned to him then and smiled, white teeth, wide pupils catching the light of the fire. “There's some trees over there that're out of the way. Little more private, huh?"

Rhyno had never spent much time out in the country, and the dark woods beyond the clearing almost made his skin crawl as much as the sweat dripping down the back of his neck. But. Heath threw his bottle into the fire and Rhyno followed suit with his own cup, trailed behind Heath as he led the way around the loose knots of people and out into the trees. 

The temperature dropped sharply as soon as they were out of the halo of heat from the fire, and it took a while for Rhyno's vision to adjust. He could see the back of Heath’s white tank top clear enough, even in the low light, but it was hard to look at that without staring at Heath’s shoulders, and.

Rhyno had thought that he was handling his nerves well enough, but they had hardly reached the edge of the trees when he stepped on a stick and it snapped with a crack under his weight and Rhyno almost jumped out of his skin, breathing hard. Heath chuckled, low and warm, reached out to put a calming hand on Rhyno's shoulder. Rhyno jumped again.

“You gotta relax.” Heath murmured “There ain't nothin’ out here except for us. Here -”

Heath led him a little way back in the trees, and Rhyno saw that there was a ratty couch sitting there behind a couple of trees, settled down into the dirt and leaf litter. Rhyno looked at it carefully, not too sure that he wanted to sit on a couch that had been left outdoors in Florida for god only knew how long. But Heath flopped down on the striped cushions without hesitation, patted the empty space next to him.

Rhyno sat down. They hadn't even gone that far into the trees, really. Rhyno could still see the fire and the clearing just fine through the grove of trunks, had enough light so that he could see Heath clearly when he dared to glance over.

Heath had his arms wrapped around himself, rubbing at his own shoulders as he leaned back on the couch. When he saw Rhyno looking at him he smiled.

“Kinda cold out here, huh?”

Rhyno struggled out of his sweater, feeling slow and clumsy as he pulled it up and off over his head to hand to Heath. Heath paused, looked between the sweater and Rhyno a couple of times before he reached out and took it, fumbled a little bit as he pulled it on. The sweater was baggy and loose around his chest and shoulders where Rhyno was so much wider than him, and Heath ran his hands down across his chest a couple of times like he was trying to press it flat.

“S’really soft...” Heath trailed off before he looked back up at Rhyno. “But now you're gonna be cold.”

Rhyno could already feel the chill seeping in.

“I'll be fine.”

But Heath shifted closer anyways, until he was pressed up against Rhyno, leaning against his side with one casual arm thrown across Rhyno's shoulder. And that was. Fine. That was probably how people who had lots of friends sat next to them, Heath probably didn't even think twice about it. But Rhyno did, he thought about it a lot, and he just tried to breathe and stay still as Heath got comfortable snuggled in against him

“There.” Heath said ducking his head to lean against Rhyno's shoulder. For the first time it occurred to Rhyno that Heath was more than likely drunk. Almost certainly, given the way that he didn't seem opposed to being so close to Rhyno. But Heath didn't seem drunk at all when he asked. “This okay?”

“Yeah.” Rhyno managed. Heath’s nose was almost pressed against Rhyno's neck, made it hard to string any words together. “So, uh.”

“Yeah?”

“What are you, um. Majoring in?”

“Majoring?” Heath was too close to Rhyno for Rhyno to be able to see his face, but Rhyno could hear his confusion clearly enough. “Oh, you must know Curtis.”

“Uh. Yeah. He was in my stats class a couple years ago.” 

Rhyno only knew Curtis as the guy who always had a Mountain Dew bottle of dip spit on his desk, and who had only added Rhyno as a friend towards the end to the semester to ask to copy his study guide. Curtis hadn't talked to him since that one instance in freshman year, and Rhyno wasn't even sure why Curtis had extended this particular invitation - the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like it had a probably been an accident.

“Yeah, Curtis is real smart. He's just about the only guy I know who goes to college.” Heath nodded, a motion that Rhyno felt instead of saw. “Well, I know you now too, huh?”

“Yeah.” Rhyno swallowed hard. Heath’s thigh was pressing against his own. Rhyno kept his hands very carefully folded in his lap. “So, um, what do you do? For work, I mean.”

“I'm a pipefitter.” Heath scratched at his own knee, and when he pulled his hand back he accidentally let it set against Rhyno's leg. “Well, I'm just a pipefitter’s helper for now but I'm hopin’ to get a real apprentice spot soon.”

“Oh.” Rhyno said. He didn't know anything about any of that, wasn't sure what he should even ask, other than “Do you enjoy it?”

“Well, it's a bunch of math and stuff, but. It's fine.” Heath shrugged, which served only to nestle him closer to Rhyno's side.

For a while, neither of them said anything. Rhyno couldn't tell whether or not it was a comfortable silence. He didn't know what to do with someone pressed so close against him like this. The crickets were chirping in the woods around them, and through the trees Rhyno watched as the fire suddenly surged up wildly, followed by distant shouting. Rhyno was just starting to wonder if maybe Heath had fallen asleep when Heath shifted a little bit against him, started to trace his index finger around in little circles. On the top of Rhyno's thigh.

That was - he was - Heath sat up more, then, lifting his head off of Rhyno's shoulder so that Rhyno could see his face. Rhyno hoped that it was dark enough that Heath wouldn't notice that -. Rhyno knew that he had been getting cold a couple of minutes ago, but it was a distant memory with the way that he was suddenly burning up. 

“Y’know, you missed makin’ a joke there.” Heath said suddenly, startling Rhyno

“Uh. What?”

“About me being able to, y’know. Fit your pipe.” Heath smiled, but Rhyno couldn't quite read his face in the distant firelight. “S’what everyone says when I tell ‘em what I do.”

“Oh, uh. Sorry.” Rhyno offered, not sure that he was apologizing for missing the joke so much as for the fact that people apparently said stuff like that to Heath.

“You wanna do this, right?” Heath asked, then. He sounded uncertain for the first time that Rhyno could remember. “Cause we don't hav’ta, I just saw you lookin’ at me before and I thought -”

“I do, um. It's just.” Rhyno’s mouth had gone suddenly dry, and felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest as he swallowed hard. He hadn't  “I mean, I just haven't -”

“Oh, that's alright.” Heath didn't sound nervous anymore as he shifted his body, nudged his shoulder into Rhyno's until Rhyno leaned back further into the couch cushion, far enough so that he had room to turn and face Heath where he was plastered along Rhyno’s side.

“It is?” Rhyno couldn't help but notice the way that the collar of his sweater hung loose around Heath’s neck, pale and glowing in the distant firelight.

“Yeah.” Heath said, and now that they had turned towards each other more, Rhyno had a perfect view of Heath’s quick, sweet smile as he added “Don’ worry, s’not that different than with girls.”

Oh. That - that wasn't - but Rhyno didn't get a chance to clarify.

Rhyno had been almost convinced that the sap on his hands had glued them together, but when Heath touched his knuckles they separated easily enough, fell limp to Rhyno's sides when Heath cupped him between the legs. Heath shifted, turned more towards Rhyno, catching Rhyno's earlobe between his teeth as he stroked his thumb back and forth across the outside of the fabric, and. 

Rhyno probably should have tried to think about baseball statistics or cold water or black mold or something if he didn't want to embarrass himself. But Rhyno couldn't think at all past the button of his pants being unhooked, the sound of Heath unzipping his fly. He couldn't even breathe or blink, couldn't even worry about anything past the feeling of Heath’s mouth pressing wetly against the side of his neck.

Then Heath sat back for a second and pulled Rhyno's sweater off, draped it across the back of the couch. Rhyno watched, heart beating frantically, as Heath rucked his tanktop up but didn't actually take it off, just ducked out of the collar and stretched the hem up over his head and behind his neck. Rhyno swallowed hard, helpless to do anything but stare. 

Rhyno hated to look at himself. He had wished that it was even darker in the woods because couldn't have stood it, would have died of shame if he'd had to look down and see the open fly of his pants where he was tenting out his briefs. But in that moment, Rhyno was suddenly thankful for the low night light because he could have stared at Heath forever. Heath was - he looked so -. 

There were a bunch of tattoos down Heath’s left side. Loopy cursive, too shadowed to read clearly but still obviously the names of. People, probably, that Heath had known. Rhyno reached out before he could think better of it, just wanted to touch so bad, and he ran his hand across the soft skin of Heath’s side, petting the ridges of his ribcage and the swirls of ink. Heath shivered, then, ducked his head. Rhyno froze, terrified that he had done something wrong. He should have known better, should have just kept his hands to himself.

But when he tried to pull back Heath caught his hand, brought it up to his face, pressed a sweet kiss in the center of Rhyno's wide, clumsy palm. A flicker of warm and wet that Rhyno's lagging brain took too long to realize had been Heath’s tongue. 

“Can I?” Heath asked as he looked back up to Rhyno's face, lower lip caught between his teeth as he waited for a response.

Rhyno nodded. He didn't know what he was agreeing to, but it hardly mattered. He would have agreed to anything that Heath wanted.

Heath was still holding Rhyno's hand against the side of his face as he leaned forward, and Rhyno could feel Heath’s pulse under his palm as Heath leaned down into his space and kissed him. Rhyno couldn't help the wounded noise that he made, or the way he gasped when Heath’s tongue darted against his own. He should have been more concerned about the very real possibility of someone else from the party wandering into the woods and seeing them, but all that Rhyno could care about was how Heath kept touching him. How good it felt when Heath traced his fingertips across his shoulder, his side, his thigh.

Rhyno could tell that Heath wasn't trying to to push him around or anything, but. Through the haze of lust, suddenly all Rhyno could think about was how nice it would be if Heath  _ did _ \- if he just shoved Rhyno where he wanted him, moved Rhyno’s big, awkward body around however he liked and took what he wanted. The thought made him shudder and before he could stop himself, Rhyno was shifting so that he could lay out longways on the couch, tugging Heath down to lay on top of him. Rhyno ended up with his neck  cricked against the armrest while Heath braced up over him with one arm, breathing hard in between kisses, rolling his hips against Rhyno, and even though they were still mostly dressed and the fabric chafed it was better than Rhyno ever could have hoped.

With a deep breath that didn't get any oxygen to his brain at all, Rhyno shifted so his knees fell open and Heath fit between them with a shocked sound while Rhyno clutched helplessly at his sides, and -. Rhyno had thought about this before, but his body wasn't used to it, completely unfamiliar with spreading his legs or having someone on top of him. He didn't know if he was doing it right, wasn't surprised when Heath pushed himself up against Rhyno's chest and sat back on his heels, breathing hard as he looked at Rhyno.

The shame was quick and immediate, like battery acid in Rhyno's chest. He couldn't even close his legs, since his thighs were still spread around Heath’s hips. Rhyno squirmed, wishing that he could do anything other than just lay there while Heath stared at him, but before he could think of any acceptable excuse for his actions Heath leaned down to kiss him again.

“Oh.” Heath murmured as he moved a hand between them. His knuckles brushed against where Rhyno's dick was still trapped and aching as Heath fumbled to shove his own shorts down around his thighs. “Oh, please, Rhyno. Fuck. You wanna? Like this?”

Rhyno couldn’t find any words, but somehow he managed to nod.

Heath hooked a hand under Rhyno's knee and pulled it up around his waist, pulled Rhyno forward so that his head thumped down off the arm and onto the couch cushion. There was a puff of mildewy air but Rhyno suddenly couldn't have cared less, far too distracted by the way that Heath licked his own palm and finally pushed Rhyno's underwear down out of the way to touch him.

Rhyno knew that he was making too much noise, low pathetic whines, but he couldn't help himself. He was too overwhelmed by how good it felt as Heath jerked their cocks together, not quite slick enough but perfect,  perfect, especially when Heath rubbed his thumb across the leaking tip of Rhyno's dick. The sensitive muscles of Rhyno's inner thighs felt stretched and hot and vulnerable and Rhyno wondered if it was like this for everyone, the feeling of flying and shaking apart as he shot off.

As soon as Rhyno could form thoughts again he felt his face heat up, embarrassed that he hadn't been able to last longer now that he was no longer so desperate that he couldn't care. Rhyno tried to catch his breath, too sensitive but still trying to thrust against Heath even though he was already spent. He wanted to apologize but he couldn't quite remember how to speak, wanted to make sure that it was good for Heath too even though Rhyno didn't know what to do. It was wetter now, at least, nice and slick as Heath worked them together with Rhyno's come. 

Heath kept nosing at the place where Rhyno's neck and shoulder came together, mouthing at the collar of his shirt and saying stuff that didn't make any sense. About how good Rhyno looked, how happy Heath was that Rhyno wanted to do this with him. Then Heath stopped talking and kissed him again, wet and open mouthed, voice catching high in the back of his throat as he came.

Rhyno thought, best case scenario, that Heath would hurry and leave right away afterwards without saying anything too mean. So he was shocked when Heath just rolled to the side afterwards, as well as he could on the cramped couch so that he was sort of wedged between Rhyno and the back cushions. He made a little contented noise as he rested his head on Rhyno's shoulder. 

Rhyno tried to stay as still as possible. Heath had an arm slung over his chest and Rhyno had come on his shirt and as he l ooked up looked up he realized for the first time that he could see just a couple of the brightest stars up through the light pollution past the treetops.


End file.
